Monday 08 September 2008

Emergency Out of Hours Service

Environmental Health do not provide an out of hours service - but we do provide an emergency service.

What is covered by the emergency service?

The service is there to deal with;
  • a major food poisoning/infectious disease outbreak
  • a serious health and safety accident where a fatality or major injury has occurred
  • a serious pollution incident and some types of noise complaints. 
It is not there to deal with non-urgent or ongoing environmental health complaints such as:
  • barking dogs
  • pest complaints
  • smoky bonfires or;
  • non collection of refuse.
Out of hours an Officer would respond to any Environmental Health complaint where 3 or more individual residents from different households have a complaint about an Environmental Health issue.

How do I use this service?

Just ring the normal Council number (01249 706111) and follow the procedure.

If it is an emergency you will be put through to the Council's complaints service. If it is classed as an emergency it will be logged and an Officer will contact you about your complaint.

Please remember only emergency complaints are dealt with out of hours.

If your complaint is not classed as an emergency complaint you will be advised. Your complaint will be logged and dealt with by the Environmental Health Team on the next working day.

If you wish to discuss your complaint the contact telephone number is 01249 706555 and you will be advised of the Officer assigned to your complaint.

What types of noise complaints will you respond to outside of normal Council working hours?

Ongoing noise complaints are dealt with by Officers as part of normal duties and visits will be arranged outside of normal hours to investigate such matters. These are not part of the emergency service.

We will however respond to a complaint where:
  • 3 or more individual residents from different households have complained about a noise nuisance, or
  • At the request of a Senior Police Officer who is present at a situation where noise is giving rise to serious complaint, or
  • 3 or more individual residents from different households have complaints about a noise party.  But remember a party once or twice a year is perhaps not unreasonable, a party every week would be unreasonable.

How quickly will you respond out of hours?

Officers on standby are not at work in the offices they are going about their normal lives.  You will receive a telephone call about your complaint normally within about 15 minutes.

If we need to visit, the Officer will give you an indication of estimated time of arrival.  The minimum time is likely to be at least one hour and depends very much on where you live.

Environmental Services - Contact Details

Environmental Services
MonktonPark
Chippenham
Wiltshire
SN15 1ER

Tel: 01249 706555
Fax: 01249 443943